Tyson Fury has been given an ultimatum after announcing his retirement.
The 34-year-old called time on his career earlier this week, leaving the sport as a unified world champion and two-time winner of the Ring Magazine belt.
Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) celebrated his birthday on Friday and revealed that he was hanging up his gloves for good.
And although ‘The Gypsy King’ relinquished the aforementioned Ring belt – which will be on the line at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia on August 20 when Anthony Joshua challenges Oleksandr Usyk for the WBA Super, WBO, IBF and IBO belts as he looks to become a three-time global ruler – he is still the custodian of the WBC world title in the sport’s premier division.
Fury was last seen between the ropes in April at Wembley Stadium in London as he stopped Dillian Whyte, the number one-ranked contender for the world title, in a defence of the green and gold bauble that he won against Deontay Wilder back in February 2020.
Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC president, said:
“I just had a beautiful video conference with Tyson Fury on his 34th birthday.
“[I am] very proud of him. He has confirmed retirement, to go out as a champion, as a family man with money [and] with a great future.”
But it has now emerged that he has been given just 12 days — until August 26 — to confirm his decision of retirement.
In an interview with Izquierdazo, Sulaiman said:
“We had communication with his promoter and we gave him more than 10 days, until the 26th, to confirm in writing if it is a final decision and in that way, proceed and address the issue.
“He has been a great hero in and out of the ring.”
It is unclear at this stage whether the belt will be declared vacant in time to potentially be attached to a showdown next month.
Joe Joyce, the number two-ranked fighter with the sanctioning body, is preparing to meet number three-ranked former WBO champion Joseph Parker on September 24 at the AO Arena in Manchester, exclusively live on BT Sport Box Office.